Art Junctionhttp://artjunction.org
lies at the crossroads of art, technology and pedagogySat, 10 Jan 2015 02:11:51 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Becoming a Globally-Connected Art Educatorhttp://artjunction.org/becoming-a-globally-connected-art-educator/
http://artjunction.org/becoming-a-globally-connected-art-educator/#commentsWed, 24 Dec 2014 22:52:13 +0000http://artjunction.org/?p=5108I’ve been passionate about global connectivity for years now. I’ll share with you why I think this topic should interest all art educators and steps you can take to get globally connected.

Its worth noting at the onset that the Web turned twenty-five this past year and that people started using the term Web 2.0 around 10 years ago to describe the shift from a passive to a more interactive online experience. If we look at what’s happening on the Web today, it’s clear that social media and digital tools have dramatically changed the way we learn, create, and share content online. The question is what are we going to do about it?

History shows that education is slow to adopt new technologies. Typically, new tools are superimposed over existing teaching practices. The painting by Laurentius de Voltolina (figure 1) illustrates a 14th century Medieval university classroom with the teacher playing the familiar role of lecturer while students sit in rows listening.

Figure 1. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The blackboard was introduced into the first American classroom in the early 19th century as an “innovative teaching tool.” It took nearly 100 years before every classroom in the county had one. Yet, the fact is things haven’t changed much in seven centuries of education—the lecture is still the preferable teaching model in many classrooms today.

While schools have been slow to change, our students have not. Kids today are going mobile. They’re accessing the Web through their smartphones, which are on 24/7. They can tap into the world’s knowledge base any time, anywhere.

This new scenario raises the question, “What do we do with students who come to school with access to more content on their phones than we could ever offer them in our classroom?” Do we lecture to them? Or, do we find ways to use the tools at our disposal to teach in more transformative ways?

The answers lie in global connectivity. It’s already made a huge impact in our daily lives. We now need to figure out how to harness this power to open up new avenues for teaching, learning and creative expression in the art classroom. There are three steps you can take in that direction.

The first step involves making connections with your local community. Perhaps you have a blog you post to regularly to share with parents what their children are doing in your art classroom? There are other ways to connect locally online as well. For instance, millions of teachers, students and parents use Edmodo and Artsonia to connect with each other on a regular basis through online classrooms and galleries.

Step two involves connecting with colleagues, nationally and internationally. You should also look for ways to connect with experts in other fields that can teach your students and enhance your own professional knowledge. For example, the Museum of Modern Art (NYC) is now offering free professional development courses to primary and secondary school teachers through Coursera, a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) provider.

Many teachers today use Twitter as their main source for professional development throughout the school year, by participating in twitter chats that occur each month or sometimes more frequently on a variety of topics. For instance, the #ArtsEdChat occurs the second Sunday of each month from 8:30 to 9:30 EST.

Step three involves extending your reach out further to include connections that link you, your students and your curriculum to the larger global community online. There are lots of ways to do this. One way is to have your students participate in one of the many global art projects being run on the web today. For instance, three high school art teachers, who met online, started The Student Creative several years ago to pose annual creative challenges for art students around the globe.

Another way to go global is to expand your personal learning network (PLN) to include digital colleagues and experts from around the world. Not only will you benefit from being in an active PLN, so will your students. Lastly, Art Education 2.0 is a social network with nearly 14,000 members. It is one of many places you can go online today to connect with other art educators around the globe.

I’ll close with this quote from Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage.” The Web has certainly given it new meaning. I invite each of you to get up on the “global stage” and share your innovative ideas, practices and student work online. You will inspire and be inspired. That’s how art education will grow and prosper in the 21st century.

]]>http://artjunction.org/becoming-a-globally-connected-art-educator/feed/1What determines what you teach in your classroom?http://artjunction.org/what-determines-what-you-teach-in-your-classroom/
http://artjunction.org/what-determines-what-you-teach-in-your-classroom/#commentsThu, 04 Sep 2014 00:38:20 +0000http://artjunction.org/?p=5072Art teachers were asked to respond to the question, “What’s the most important factor in determining what your teach?” There were 10 options to choose from: Art History, Contemporary Art & Culture, Themes and Big Ideas, State or National Art Standards, Media Skills, Art Elements and Principles, Students Interests, Multiculturalism, District/School Curriculum Goals, Other. The unscientific poll ran for sixty days and garnered 61 responses. Here are the results:

]]>http://artjunction.org/what-determines-what-you-teach-in-your-classroom/feed/5IGNITE NAEA: Enlighten us, but make it quickhttp://artjunction.org/ignite-naea-enlighten-us-but-make-it-quick/
http://artjunction.org/ignite-naea-enlighten-us-but-make-it-quick/#commentsThu, 06 Mar 2014 00:09:05 +0000http://artjunction.org/?p=5021Ignite NAEA is just weeks away on Sunday, March 30 from 4:30- 5:50 pm. You’ll be on the edge of your seat for this fast-paced session! Colleagues will deliver a series of 5-minute presentations, communicating what they are passionate about in art
education, while 20 slides auto-advance every 15 seconds! Don’t miss NAEA’s first-ever Ignite session!

PostScript (5.16.14): Ignite session video is available for viewing on the NAEA website. Requires login with NAEA username and password.

]]>http://artjunction.org/ignite-naea-enlighten-us-but-make-it-quick/feed/02013: Year in Reviewhttp://artjunction.org/2013-year-in-review/
http://artjunction.org/2013-year-in-review/#commentsSat, 28 Dec 2013 01:37:22 +0000http://artjunction.org/?p=4970Here are ten important articles that touch upon some of the policies, initiatives, ideas, and research that shaped dialogue and practices in the field of art education this past year, both in and outside the classroom. Feel free to add titles and links to any additional articles you feel contributed significantly to art(s) education during 2013, in the comment box at the bottom of this posting.

The STEM to STEAM initiative picked up a lot of, uh, steam this past year (sorry for the pun) due in large part to the leadership of John Maeda, outgoing President of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and a broad range of institutions, corporations, teachers, policy makers, students and other individuals who have thrown their support behind the movement. The impetus behind the move to STEAM is to enlarge the persistent focus on STEM subjects in schools (i.e., science, technology, engineering and math) to include integrated studies in the arts and design, which many proponents see as a key to increasing the nation’s competitiveness and ability to tackle the challenges of our time. It is against this backdrop that Paul Sproll cautions that “ . . .it would be unwise to believe that an emphasis on these [STEM] subjects alone can be solely responsible for reversals of the nation’s fortune and for improving its competitiveness.” In order for art education to find its place at the curriculum table, Sproll contends that visual arts educators need to scrutinize their curricula and pedagogy and ensure that the rigor of their subject matches what is typically found in STEM classrooms. He also feels that there needs to be a seismic shift in cultural attitudes before art and design can take on a more central role in students’ learning. This is more likely to occur once the distinctive features of art and design education are made more transparent and the quality of student learning in art is made more visible to the public and policy makers.

This far-reaching report examines the state of empirical knowledge about the impact of arts education on different kinds of learning outcomes including those involving non-arts academic subjects such as mathematics, science, reading and writing. Contrary to popular beliefs regarding the non-arts effects of arts education, the researchers found little empirical evidence to support a causal link and instead argue that the primary justification of arts education should focus on the intrinsic value of the arts and the related skills and important habits of mind that they develop.

According to Sean Buffington, President of University of the Arts in Philadelphia, students today have grown up learning to use powerful creative technologies for artistic expression raising the question “What do we need to do to teach them?” New technologies are not only affecting how the arts are taught, they have also brought about a “radical democratization of artistic expression,” which in turn is fundamentally changing how art students today “think about art, its meaning and purpose, and the ways in which it is made.” Buffington makes a strong case for developing new models of art education that are responsive to the changing conditions affecting higher education and how students today think about creative pursuits.

While arts education may be on the decline in public school curriculums, this report from the Wallace Foundation shows that young people today are finding alternative ways to engage in their artistic passions through the use of digital production tools and social media on their own time and outside of school. Forward-thinking arts educators owe it to themselves and their students to read this report that offers a framework for thinking about digitally-powered arts learning and practical approaches for bringing technology, children and the arts together in a variety of settings.

The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) released a framework document in January 2013 that details the rationale, goals, and strategies behind the new National Standards for Arts Education being developed that cover the five arts disciplines of dance, media arts, music, theatre, and visual arts. In this September 9 posting on the Americans for the Arts’ ARTSblog, Dennis Inhulsen, President of the National Art Education Association and Writing Chair for the NCCAS in the Visual Arts, describes the work of the writing team, an overview of what the standards are and what they are not. For more information, visit the NCCAS wiki.

According to a study published in the journal Economic Development Quarterly, people who participated in arts activities as children were more likely to generate patents and launch businesses as adults. The interdisciplinary team of researchers behind this study concluded that having an artistic background sets the stage for non-conventional thinking involving the use of analogies and imagination, skills that participants used to solve problems in their chosen fields.

In states that have adopted Common Core Standards this past year, art teachers are faced with new expectations that require them to teach literacy skills in their own area. In this November blog posting on Edutopia, Andrew Miller chats with Tennessee art teacher Cheri Jorgensen about how she has adapted her curriculum to include Common Core ELA standards.

A recent study published in the journals Education Next and Educational Researcher lends support to a position that art teachers have held instinctively for years: Kids who are exposed to the arts through museums and performing arts centers gain benefits beyond just being more creative. They display greater tolerance, empathy, plus better educational memory and critical thinking skills.

Deborah Howes, Director of Digital Learning at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), shares insights gained through MoMA’s recent move into the realm of digital education via an array of fee-based online courses offered through their website as well as a free Massive Open Online Course (or MOOC) offered via Coursera. More than 17,000 enrolled in the first MOOC course that was designed as a professional development course for teachers interested in incorporating inquiry-based teaching strategies with works of art in their classrooms. Howes maintains that one of the biggest challenges faces educators in the 21st century is “ . . . letting go of familiar habits preventing you from reaching other audiences that expect and need to learn in different ways.”

Looking for more stories about art education? Check out my Art Education in the News magazine made with Flipboard for optimal viewing on the iPad.

What if the earth was buffeted daily by high winds? How would this new living condition change life on the planet? What adjustments would we need to make in our daily routines to survive? This is the inspiration behind the delightful awarding-winning animation titled WIND by Robert Loebel, who shows us how inhabitants living in a windy area find a way to deal with their difficult living conditions.

Seeing this film gave me a chuckle and reminded me of a drawing game I once played with my elementary students called “What if..?” It’s a simple game requiring thin black markers, drawing paper and a dozen or so What if? prompts placed in a bowl.

The game begins by passing out paper and markers. Then, have a student choose a prompt from the bowl to read out loud. For example, “What if people were magnetic?” Challenge students to think of ways daily life would change if people were magnetic and to draw their “best” idea. After 10 minutes or so, have the students write the prompt as a caption on their drawings, then collect and stack the drawings off to the side. Next, have a student choose a new prompt from the bowl and repeat the drawing session. Depending on the amount of time available and student interest, continue this routine 3 to 4 times, ending with a prompt that encourages students to come up with their own “What if?” situation to illustrate. Once you’ve completed 4 to 5 rounds, pin the drawings up and share with the class. Lastly, have each student choose his or her favorite “What if?” drawing to show in a school hallway exhibition.

The point of the activity is not to get hung up with teaching drawing; rather, the focus is on generating ideas and having fun with imagining how life might change on earth given different extreme conditions.

]]>http://artjunction.org/what-if/feed/0Francis W. Parker, An Early Proponent of Student Choicehttp://artjunction.org/francis-w-parker-an-early-proponent-of-student-choice/
http://artjunction.org/francis-w-parker-an-early-proponent-of-student-choice/#commentsFri, 29 Nov 2013 05:20:52 +0000http://artjunction.org/?p=4907In preparation for teaching my graduate class in the History of Teaching Art each year, I make a point of spending time digging into the past of art education to locate some new nuggets of information and interesting historical facts to share with my students in our survey of “Great Moments in Art Education History.”

Within the journal, I found an article titled “Two Hypotheses for the Acquisition of Thought Expression” by Francis W. Parker, a pioneer of the progressive school movement and a firm believer that education should teach students to think for themselves rather than simply cram more and more information into their heads.

Parker hints at the debate that was occurring at the time over the role of formal training vs creative self expression in the nurturing of young minds in the classroom. I imagine his comments will resonate with art teachers who practice choice-based art education today.

Francis W Parker

It seems to be a safe principle to follow, that nothing shall be demanded of a child in the way of expression that is not genuine, that is not the reflex or correspondence to his own conscious images; that any attempt to express that which is not genuine interferes with the normal action of the mind, deadens the interest, and worse than this, leads to dishonesty and hypocrisy.

Every child loves to draw. Give him paint, crayon or pencil and he will make crude and imperfect images with the greatest confidence and with perfect delight. This is proven in countless cases. This is the spontaneous beginning of art? But teachers of perfectly accurate drawing claim that this is a hindrance rather than a help, that the spontaneous activities and the loves of the child are to be ignored until he has had a certain definite and accurate training in line drawing.

On the other hand, students of concentration believe that these spontaneous activities are the true beginnings of all knowledge and skill; and that the more the child draws in early life the better, no matter how crude, according to any adequate standard, the external result may be. They assert that under the modern system of teaching drawing by flat copies no artists were ever made; that, indeed the art teachers themselves are not artists, although they have had the best raining that the so-called art school afford. They also assert that all true art feeling must spring from the spontaneous desire on the part of the child to draw, and to practice, and that out of this crudeness and imperfection will steadily grow, under proper criticism, better and better technique, that the only criticism worthy of the name is the criticism from the standpoint of the child’s concepts; that as these concepts become more and more developed the skill will be comfortably enhanced; that there is such a thing as organic growth.

“When we do something with our hands, it changes the way we feel, which changes the way we think, which changes the way we act.” • Carl Wilkens

I know it’s a little after the fact, but I wanted to share these photos from last weekend’s incredible One Million Bones installation on the National Mall in Washington DC. Organized and presented by The Art of Revolution, a non-profit organization that uses art to inspire creative action towards social change, the One Million Bones Project and National Mall installation brought thousands of volunteers to Washington last Saturday to place over a million handmade and fabricated bones on the Mall in a “massive grave site” intended to raise awareness of ongoing genocide and mass atrocities around the globe. The event was the culmination of over three years of work by the One Million Bones staff, volunteers and partner organizations inspired by the creative vision of Naomi Natalie, an installation artist, photographer, and social practice artist. Through hands-on art making workshops staged in all 50 states and over 30 countries, well over 100,000 participants including teachers, students, artists, community groups, and social activists made bones from clay, plaster and other materials that eventually ended up in the Mall installation. While such a large-scale public art project may not end genocide, it did create a powerful and poignant visual reminder of the impact of mass violence and its heavy toll worldwide.

See a stunning overhead photograph of the ‘One Million Bones’ installation taken by Teru Kuwayama.

Imagine a million bones placed on the National Mall in Washington DC. Ever since I watched a video of Naomi Natale speak about her One Million Bones project in 2010, the image of one million bones in the National Mall has lingered in the back of my mind. Over the past couple of years, I’ve crossed paths with Naomi several times either online or in person as she crisscrossed the country raising awareness of ongoing genocide and mass atrocities around the globe and encouraging students, teachers, activists, artists and others to create hand-made bones to be laid on the Mall in response.

In March, I had the opportunity to create a bone from newspaper and plaster gauze at a hands-on workshop sponsored by Naomi’s team at the 2013 NAEA Conference in Fort Worth, Texas. That experience convinced me to head to Washington DC next week to participate in the installation of the bones in front of the Capitol Building. I’m looking forward to witnessing such a large-scale art installation.

Postscript: There will be a live webcast of the Million Bones installation on Saturday June 8th from 11:00 – Noon and 4:00 to 6:30 pm (EST).

On March 14th, artist Oliver Herring visited Oak Hall School in Gainesville along with art education faculty and students from the University of Florida. Students were given scissors and tape and challenged by Oliver to transform themselves using fragments of photos previously taken of them and printed out. Here are some of the results. (view slide show instead)

Internationally acclaimed artist, Oliver Herring, will visit the University of Florida’s School of Art and Art History on March 11-15th. During his stay, Herring will present a public lecture at 6 PM (EST) on Thursday, March 14th at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art Auditorium. This lecture will be streamed live on the Web and can be viewed here. Note that you may need to install the SilverLight Plug-in in order to view the streaming lecture.

In addition, Herring will produce one of his “Areas for Action” events at WARPhaus Gallery, and collaborate with students from WARP, Art Education, and Creative Photography during the week.

UF students and the public are invited to view and/or participate in a collaborative Workshop at WARPhaus Gallery. Open to public: 12-5PM, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday March 11, 12, 13, and 15th.

Background
Oliver Herring received his MFA degree from Hunter College and his BFA degree from University of Oxford (Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art), in England. Herring has received grants from Artpace, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Herring is based in Brooklyn, New York and was born in Heidelberg, Germany.